Cambridgeshire Police have revealed stop and search tactics have seen a rise in the number of drug offences recorded in Peterborough.

New statistics revealed that the number of drug offences recorded in the past year in Peterborough rose by 79 per cent – compared to an increase of just 13 per cent across England as a whole.

There was also an overall rise in crime of six per cent in Peterborough.

New figures show major increase in drug offending in Peterborough - as hundreds ...

Drug related crime has soared over the past year

When asked what Cambridgeshire Police were doing to tackle the problems, Detective Chief Inspector Fiona Bail said: “While it is always concerning to see a rise in crime, it is also encouraging that members of the community and victims of crime are reporting these incidents to us.

“Drug dealing and associated criminality remains a priority for our policing teams across Peterborough. While it's always concerning to see more drugs offences, the rise could be the result of two factors - proactive policing work and a change in recording practices.

"Police across the city have been carrying out proactive stop-searches in hotspot areas, executing warrants, and arresting suspects. Furthermore, we always encourage anyone with information about drug dealing in their area to report it.

“In addition, a change in recording practices has been implemented across the country, with all reports from border forces of drugs being intercepted on their way into the county, now being recorded as crimes rather than intelligence items.”

Increases in violent crime, burglary and shoplifting were also recorded.

DCI Ball said: “Since the formation of our spree offender team last year and the introduction of a dedicated officer in the city centre, their hard work and dedication to tackling retail crime across Peterborough has resulted in an increase in the number of positive outcomes, and we are consistently detecting more than 50% of crimes reported for shoplifting.

“The team, along with our city centre NPT, have been working closely with partner agencies and local retailers to encourage the reporting of retail crime so we can get a true indication of the number of offences. This has been successful as we have introduced direct reporting from systems that retailers use, so they are not having to duplicate their reports.

“We take all reports of crime seriously and continue to work tirelessly to keep Peterborough as safe as possible for residents.”